A couple years ago, nosing around in McGee’s On Food and Cooking, I came across his suggestion that one could make neater poached eggs by getting rid of the liquidy, flyaway whites before poaching. And it works! (There’s really no point in adding acid to the water.) Regrettably, I left my good perforated spoon at a Macy’s demo and was left a generic slotted spoon with a shallow bowl and the egg always wanted to jump out.

So when my friend Mac suggested we make some kitchen tools, a great perforated spoon was high on the list. And here it is, The Badass Perforated (aka Egg) Spoon, now available at OpenSky, a new, still evolving e-commerce site (follow me there for weekly special deals they put together). It not only easily holds any egg, but it’s also a great utility player in the kitchen scooping up big helpings of what ever it is you’re lifting out of liquids. A good perforated spoon is a kitchen essential.

Also, I love to poach eggs. Eggs are one of the all-time great garnishes for, just about anything. I put them on a steak, on a salad, in a soup, on beans (a poached egg on Hoppin’ John is a perfect weekend brunch). The egg gives muscle and delight to every thing. For an easy midday lunch with Donna, I’ll sweat minced shallot in a little butter, wilt a pound of spinach in the pan and serve it as is, salt and pepper, with a poached egg on top and some toasted baguette. Easy, economical, satisfying.

By letting the liquidy part of the egg drain off, you don’t wind up with all so many flyaway whites.

You get a gorgeous poached egg

Poached Egg with Sauteed Spinach for Two

1 shallot, minced

2 tablespoons butter

1 pound baby spinach

2 large eggs

salt and pepper

Sweat the shallot in the butter in a large pan. Add the spinach and season with salt and pepper. (If you want, you can blanch and shock your spinach first which does affect the flavor, allows it to cook evenly, and you don’t need to use so big a pan.) Keep warm.

Bring a pot of water to a boil.

Crack each egg into a large perforated spoon and let the loose white drain off, a few seconds, then slip each egg into a ramekin.

Turn the burner to low. When the boil calms, tip the eggs out of their cups into the poaching water and cook just until the white is set, a few minutes.

Serve on a bed of sauteed spinach (hold a towel to the bottom of the spoon when you do to help draw off excess water), with toasted and buttered baguette.

Introducing the latest from Dalton-Ruhlman tools. The spoon, about 13 inches long and 2.5 inches wide, is $27—we’re trying to keep costs as low as possible but we have very little capital and so can only produce in small numbers; I apologize. The spoon is really solid, will last forever, and there’s nothing like it out there that we could find. If we can get some volume going, prices will go down!

Jacqueline Willis

I have a mini one that i use for ” molecular gastronomy ” stuff , but this is a great idea. Gotta love McGee. I love poached eggs but i hate that “watery” feeling sometimes, so I poach in plastic wrap sometimes.

Christina

Is the spoon made of stainless steel? How long is the handle? Does the handle have an opening to hang from a hook? How big is the bowl of the spoon? Sorry to ask such mundane questions, would really like this spoon to end my search

CharcuterieGuy

Nice spoon!
I’ve made poached eggs this way for years.
I also dunk the egg in cold water or carefully run a stream of cold water near the edge of the egg to remove all the ‘watery’ albumen before cooking.
Of course using the freshest of eggs makes a big difference too! : )

Andreas

Rhonda

I love eggs any way I can get them but am particularly fond of poached eggs, which I usually make for breakfast on Sunday mornings. I have a sort of weird tool, which is essentially a flat strainer with a right-angle handle, so I scoop the egg off in it, set it on a paper towel to drain, then cut away the fly-away white with a parting knife. Now with this spoon I won’t have any of the fly-away white. Simply brilliant.

When I make anything with a bound breading, after I beat the yolks, I put them through a strainer so that when I dip the floured pieces of whatever I am breading into the bread crumbs, the egg is smooth with no gloppy pieces that wreck the smoothness of the breadcrumb coating. Just saying.

Michael, yesterday I made homemade ricotta cavatelli for the first time with the little Beebo that I got years ago. (Alas, it is out of production, although some company has apparently gotten the mold and is making a reproduction.) I got this idea from a YouTube video: When making the pasta ropes to put through the Beebo, I put the pasta dough through the larger-of-the-two KitchenAid sausage stuffer attachments, and ropes of pasta just came sliding out, completely even, all ready to be lightly dusted with flour and put through the Beebo. You could probably use the smaller attachment, cut pieces off the rope, and roll them on a gnocchi board to get the ridges.

Ruth

Jeffrey

Mine arrived today, and I was intrigued that it was sent from Vocational Guidance Services in Cleveland. Could it be that the land of Kid Leo and Michael Symon might be the new source for quality kitchen tools? Nope. The bag that held the spoon had a “made in China” stamp.

I made the perfect poached egg last night without a spoon! Or a mold.. a technique I saw on a food competition show that really works, and I avoid sharing it on my blog in tommorrows post- it is a blog about Atention Deficit and not cooking, anyway. It offered your site as a linked article, so I posted it so that if readers are interested, they will show up here to learn to poach. In fact, I never tried a spoon before, but now must compare techniques. Thanks, this is a very professional site!

charles greer

annie

I recently decided that I WAS going to conquer the poached egg and become adept at making visually appealing eggs. I can’t tell you how many variations I tried: faster simmer, slower simmer, vinegar and/or salt, swirling water, letting simmering water seep into the ramekin hoping to set the albumin a bit before putting it in the water… etc.

tokyospark

onetallgirl

Just got the spoon in the mail. Ran inside to poach an egg and it worked perfectly! I have been trying to poach eggs for a while now and they never came out like the would at a resto. Resisted paying $27 for a while and I am really glad I finally gave in. Thank you!